State DOT considers selling Route 7 property

By Brian Lockhart, Staff Writer

Published 8:49 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

Want to buy a home along a never-built expressway?

The state Department of Transportation has outlined to the governor the benefits of selling off 14 residences purchased years ago by the state for the expansion of the old Route 7 connecting Norwalk and Danbury.

On July 14 Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell wrote her commissioners and agency heads asking they provide her with lists of saleable assets to help raise revenue during the budget crisis.

Those lists were due July 27 but her office last week was not releasing the details, saying it was still awaiting information.

But the DOT, at The Advocate's request, supplied a copy of a letter Commissioner Joseph Marie sent to Rell outlining properties identified by his department.

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"The majority of the parcels identified are uneconomic remnants that remain form properties acquired for transportation projects and only have value to an abutting property owner," Marie wrote.

But Marie said the state has valuable land holdings for two dormant express way projects --Route 6, which was intended to proved quicker passage through Andover, Bolton and Coventry, and Route 7.

In total the DOT controls more than 890 acres of vacant land in the Route 7 expressway or Super 7 right of way totaling an estimated $80 million to $150 million, Marie wrote Rell.

The General Assembly in 1993 amended state statutes specifically restricting the sale of any Route 7 properties. But that requirement was lifted during the recently concluded legislative session with the help of Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton,

Marie did not specifically advise selling the vacant land. But he told Rell 14 improved parcels -- properties with homes in Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding and Danbury -- have proven "a liability to the department" and are valued at $6.6 million.

The state acquired the Super 7 properties decades ago to build a four- to six-lane expressway from Norwalk to Danbury. Long-standing opposition from environmentalists and smaller towns along the route has all but killed prospects for Super 7's completion, and the DOT is widening the existing Route 7.

Over the years the DOT has rented the 14 homes to tenants, resulting in a modest income.

According to DOT data the monthly rent ranges from around $1,158 for ranch at 29 Fire Hill Road in Ridgefield, built in 1950, to $3,000 for the colonial at 11 West Stars Plain Rd. in Danbury, built pre-1967.

But Marie told Rell the lengthy amount of time it takes the state to generate lease agreements and obtain tenants can result in vacancies which leads to vagrancy and vandalism.

He also said the Route 7 expressway is not included in any of the DOT's major initiatives planned through 2025 and were it to proceed, the environmental permitting process might very well require a change in the initial right-of-way.

"The release of these 14 properties does not further jeopardize the future of a Route 7 Expressway as state ownership is incomplete and the location of the corridor has not been finalized," Marie wrote. "However it would relieve the state of continual maintenance and liability and allow department personnel, which have been significantly reduced due to the retirement incentive plan, to focus on primary responsibilities that support active transportation projects."